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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Lobbying charge by Arun Shourie stirs row

Lobbying charge by Arun Shourie stirs row

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published Published on Nov 28, 2010   modified Modified on Nov 28, 2010

Former telecom minister Arun Shourie on Sunday stirred a controversy by claiming in a TV interview that he was replaced by senior party leader Venkaiah Naidu in Parliament as the BJP's lead speaker in a debate on the 2009 Budget so that the party could take a more accommodating line on proposals that could favour industrialist Mukesh Ambani.

Referring to tapes of a purported conversation between lobbyist Niira Radia and JD(U) MP and former bureaucrat N K Singh, Shourie said he was relegated in the speaking order at the instance of Singh. Both N K Singh and the BJP claimed the charge was "baseless and ridiculous".

In the purported conversation, Singh allegedly expressed the fear that Shourie, having been assured a Rajya Sabha seat from UP with the SP's support, would take a line favouring Anil Ambani and the the BJP would be constrained to toe the line taken by its first speaker.

Asked in the interview, telecast on CNN-IBN, whether his substitution by Naidu was indeed meant to ensure that the party showed understanding for Mukesh Ambani's pitch for tax breaks and incentives, Shourie said, "Yes, it was certainly their objective, I mean it's clear from the tapes that was the objective. They may have apprehended this because I had spoken about that particular proposal in an adverse way in a party meeting... I may or may not have spoken about this on the floor of the House," Shourie said.

When contacted by TOI, N K Singh said, "As revenue secretary, I had opposed the demand to extend tax breaks and other incentives available to those engaged in oil exploration to those doing gas exploration. I had sent letters to that effect to the then petroleum secretary, as well as to the principal secretary to the then prime minister."

He further said that the entire allegation flows from a "social conversation" which has no bearing on a policy issue. "In any case, it is the BJP's prerogative to decide whom to field in a parliamentary debate and in what order," Singh said.

BJP, on its part, dismissed the charge as "outrageous". Sources in the party said that contrary to what Shourie has claimed, the line-up of speakers on the finance bill was settled 10 days in advance. There was no last-minute change as Shourie claimed. "The fact of the matter is that the party has deliberately decided to steer clear of the dispute on gas pricing because of the bitter corporate warfare raging around it. Shourie kept speaking about it in party meetings but he never had the sanction to speak in Parliament on the same because we didn't want to be seen as taking sides," senior party sources said.

Sources also said that being a former BJP president, it was logical that Naidu got precedence over Shourie.
 
Shourie, however, had a different version. Asked in the interview whether this actually happened, he said, "Yes, there is no doubt in that. I was asked to open the debate on the Budget, I worked for one week to speak on the matter and at the last minute, after I reached the House, I was told that the previous night, Venkaiah Naidu had decided to speak suddenly. Therefore, as he had been party president, he would speak first. My turn would come after all the 13-14 speakers had spoken and then I would be the second speaker for the party."


The Times of India, 29 November, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Lobbying-charge-by-Arun-Shourie-stirs-row/articleshow/7006952.cms


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